Tagline: he's leading 'The Great American Comeback'
It took a while to get it stable, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was finally able to announce, from his own words, the worst-kept political secret in the state -- that he'd be seeking the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2024
That was minutes after he posted a video to his Twitter feed touting his campaign.
"The federal government makes it harder for families to make ends meet, and the President flounders. Success is attainable and freedom is worth fighting for ... truth must be our foundation and common sense will longer be an uncommon virtue. In Florida, we proved it can be done. We held the line when freedom hung in the balance. We need the courage to lead, and the strength to win. I'm running for President to lead our great American comeback.
After adjusting the Twitter Spaces platform -- the sheer number of listeners dragged Spaces down for over 20 minutes -- for nearly an hour, he, Twitter owner Elon Musk and a number of moderators were able to discuss his platform, delving into the COVID-19 response, building an economy, gender ideology, and rebuking "the narratives of legacy media."
"We need to get focused on the core mission. We must reinvigorate our constitutional system by returning the government to its rightful owners: we the people," he said on Twitter. In Florida we chose facts over fear, education over indoctrination and law and order over rioting and disorder. We held the line, and we're thriving because of it. We can and we must deliver big results for America. We will never surrender to the 'woke mob.'"
DeSantis spoke about why he announced his candidacy on a live social media platform rather than "the usual way," as Musk described it. He said responding to COVID made "cutting against the grain" the norm.
"It is lonely making those decisions ... there was a concerted effort to stifle dissent," he said, talking about lockdowns, forced masking and other things he fought against. "Major tech platforms worked in conjunction with the government. The truth was censored repeatedly, and that won't happen now with Twitter."
He is also scheduled to appear on Fox News at 8 p.m. Eastern.
It all came a day after DeSantis signed Senate Bill 750 from the recently-ended legislative session, part of which changed what is known as the state’s “resign-to-run” law to help clear the way for DeSantis’ presidential bid. Florida law has said any state officeholder who “qualifies for federal public office must resign from the office he or she presently holds if the terms, or any part thereof, run concurrently with each other.” But the bill created an exemption for candidates for president or vice president, effectively allowing DeSantis to avoid having to submit his resignation as he runs for president, News Service of Florida reported Wednesday night.
On Tuesday night, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis released a what amounted to a hype video to her Twitter feed, with the tag line, "America is worth the fight... Every. Single. Time."
DeSantis, 44, is in his second term as governor, scheduled to end in 2026. His campaign has been subject of months of rumor and conjecture, and he's seen as a direct rival to former President Donald Trump, who has already made his run official, alongside other contenders: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, conservative media personality Larry Elder, former congressman Asa Hutchinson, investor and former pharmaceutical company CEO Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. The survivor of that process would face incumbent President Joe Biden in the November 2024 general election.
DeSantis was a Florida member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2012-18 before running for the Republican nomination for governor, getting the endorsement of then-President Trump, and winning the primary and a general election in narrow fashion over Democrat Andrew Gillum. In November 2022, he won re-election by a stunning 19 percentage points over former Gov. Charlie Crist.
